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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Rupert Neate on Sark

Battle in the Channel: seigneur of Sark takes on Barclay dynasty

The view west from Sark
The view west from Sark across the island of Brecqhou towards Guernsey. Photograph: Horizon International Images/Alamy

Christopher Beaumont’s ancestors ruled the tiny island of Sark as a feudal state for 443 years until, in 2008, the billionaire Barclay brothers “forced democracy on the island”, as he puts it.

Now Beaumont, 66, is leading a charm offensive to attract new members of the global super-rich to help fund a takeover of the Barclay family’s string of abandoned hotels and other buildings on the island to create a tax- and car-free “biodiverse utopia”, 111 nautical miles from Southampton.

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